Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.  In celebration of the time we honor the birth of Christ, I share with you some Christmas poems both written from Mary’s perspective.  These came from Sr. Ruth Agnes Evans and were first recommended to me by poet and friend, Jay Ramsay.  Sr. Ruth entered  religious life in 1987 with the Poor Clares in the rural Cotswold valley of Woodchester, South West England.  She lived there for 24 years until the convent closed in May 2011 and is now enjoying time in rented accommodations concentrating on her writing.  Thank you Sr. Ruth for these beautiful Christmas reflections! 

Seafarer  [1]

Small traveller,

inside the sea, inside me,

under a sky without a moon;

your waves in me,

quieter than Lake Galilee.

You lay in my body’s swell,

where there was no wind or squall,

no tide to take you far away.

I was the night that kept you safe

before you knew the light,

O uncreated light,

granting all

that I was formed to be,

made me a beggar on the earth,

Queen for eternity.

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Not As Your Own [1]

You did not come here as your own,

this land  where beasts and soldiers roam,

where men die bleeding  and alone.

You claimed your flesh and blood from me,

who did not claim equality

with God, lay wrapped in me…

You came like one unknown to bliss.

You bore no mark of ages sown,

of homage known, of love enthroned,

yet yielded in eternity…

You took the comfort of my kiss,

you sucked my milk, your eyes were mild

on mine and rapt on me.

The night was cold, I made you snug,

with hay and strips of swaddling band.

The flesh you took from me must stand

before the gaze of men who brand

each other with their hate and lies.

No murmur here of majesty,

of seraphs stooped in ecstasy…

Next to my bed I heard you cry,

you were so small, wrapped by my hands.

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